Dog Trainer In Kansas CityOK, from time to time I will use this blog to blow off some steam about things that drive me nuts… Today is one of those days. I have offered an off leash puppy class for about the last two years now and the best attendance I have had is well about 4 dog 🙁

The problem is that folks today just don’t see the benefit of training puppies (they wait till they have problems to make the dog trainer phone call) and it really is a damn shame that things are like this. Most folks don’t realize that the socialization period for dogs runs from about week 3 to about week 20, and after that age the dogs personality is pretty well set. This doesn’t mean we cant work on specific behaviors and improve them, it just means the owners missed out on their best shot to make sure they will have a happy healthy and social dog in regards to all of those “damn things” that seem to scare dogs. Like men, kids, thunder, fireworks, power tools, even other dogs…

So take it from me, a dog trainer from Shawnee, Ks, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, but unfortunately I have decided to drop the off leash puppy class and replace it with private instruction at the families home. This way I can at least help those folks who actually do call. I will spend an hour or two with each client, give them an eBook on puppy socialization, potty training and other important topics and help direct them to activities that will turn their puppies into a super socialization citizen. It really bums me out to drop the puppy class but simply sending them on into the night to try and find other trainers offering good puppy classes is not fair to the family and certainly not fair to the puppies.

So just remember that the most important thing you can do with your new puppy is to start training immediately. If you get your puppy at 10 weeks you only have another 8-10 weeks to mold them into the model citizen! Otherwise you will be among all those other clients I have asking why and what went wrong with the cute friendly little puppy they bought just months before…

As always thanks for letting me vent and I hope you learned something from this little outburst 🙂  If nothing else you all now know how I will be doing puppy classes going forward…

Mike

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